


The Shadows that Linger

by MrFrank



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Gen, minecraft au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:30:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5471438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrFrank/pseuds/MrFrank
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The men of Achievement City decide to make a visit to the Nether. When things don't go well, they end up leaving more behind in the Nether than a little pride and common sense...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shadows that Linger

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot for the life of me find the fic that inspired this oneshot thing, so if any one can tell me the title or author, that would be every kind of fantastic. The original fic is a minecraft au where the guys discover that there are like, shadow versions of themselves in the Nether, and one of them gets captured by the shadows and all kinds of angst and awesome and such ensue. This fic was inspired by me wondering about how the shadows were created and left in the Nether in the first place.

    Fire raged all around. The darkness glowed with it, the roar of the flames almost as loud as the terrified screams.

    "Don't let go, don't let go!" The curly haired boy screamed. He was dangling over the edge of a deep, dark pit, his legs kicking out over infinite blackness. The only things holding him back from falling were the sweat-slicked hands wrapped around his own.

    "I'm trying," the boy who held him said. His glasses hung at the edge of his nose, slipping in the boy's sweat, and he tossed his head to try and get them back into place.

    "This was such a stupid idea! Go into the Nether, go into the fucking Nether! Why the hell did we agree to this, Ray? What the fuck were we thinking?" 

    "Michael, that's not helping," Ray snapped, following up with a startled yelp as the angrily writhing Michael slipped in his grip.

    "Don't you fucking drop me, Ray!"

    "Stop fucking moving, then!"

    "I'm trying! Where are the others, why aren't they fucking helping us?"

    "I think we're the only ones left," Ray said, glancing around the hellish landscape that was the Nether. Unsurprisingly, there was no one there to meet his searching gaze. They'd seen Ryan go down themselves as he stayed back to fight off something that was little more than a bouncing hunk of lava. It had pursued them relentlessly, until Ryan and his sword had given it a proper target.

    To Michael and Ray's horror, the thing had simply split into two under Ryan's blade, and as the creature continued  to divide, Ryan's shouted orders and their own terror had them fleeing, leaving the older Hunter surrounded by the living, multiplying molten rock.

    The man’s horrified screams had echoed for a short time, before fading until all they could hear was the crackle of the flames that had consumed him. They could only assume the others, gone to search what had looked like an abandoned village's ruins, had met a similar fate.

    "This is so much bullshit!" Michael bellowed.

    "Maybe we should just jump," Ray said, "It's the quickest way home at this point." He motioned with a tilt of his head to the glow in the distance, which marked the portal they'd first come through.

    "Are you fucking crazy? Do you have any fucking idea how bad that would hurt, Ray?"

    "No more than burning to death!"

    "But a lot more than you pulling me up and us getting to the portal!"

    "And how do you suggest we do that?" Ray started to ask, until a large, dark shape materializing from the pit they clung to caused his voice to falter into a startled gasp. Below him, Michael demanded to know what was going on. Ray could only mouth wordlessly as the floating giant lifted into the air, its long, fin like appendages swaying as it turned towards the boys. Thin, dark eyes frowned down on the two humans foolish enough to disturb it.

    "What the hell is that?" Michael demanded as a strange sound filled the air. It was coming from the monster. It seemed to be inflating slightly, orange light gathering in its small, round mouth.

    "Sorry, Michael."

    "Sorry--what, Ray, no!"

    Michael's plea turned to a scream as Ray jerked his hands up, releasing his grip on his friend. The air around him grew hotter, a scorching wind hitting him a moment before the fireball filled his vision. He could hear Michael's scream change, the other boy screaming his name before the fireball struck, and then the only things he could hear were the crackle of his burning skin and his own, horrified screams.

 --

    When Ray woke, he was still screaming, his skin rippling with the fire's scorching pain. He thrashed and cried out, the memory of his death clinging stubbornly to his mind, even though the fire had long passed.

    Slowly, eventually, it began to fade, and under his own ragged shouts he could hear another sound. It was a familiar voice rumbling a constant string of comforts and reminders that the pain wasn't real. The pain continued to fade, and the warm touch of a hand on his arm joined the voice.  The touch, the voice, they were what was real now. Reality snapped back to Ray and he gasped, his eyes flying open.

    "You back with us?" a warm, rough voice asked. Ray's gaze rolled to the side, where a haggard looking man sat beside his bed.

    "Hey Jack," Ray mumbled. "You look like shit."

    "So do you," Jack assured him.

    "Everyone else?"

    "They also look like shit. But they're all home.”

    Ray sighed, laying his head back and letting his eyes drift shut again.

    “Get some sleep,” Jack said, giving Ray’s arm a squeeze. “It’s dark now, so we all need to rest anyway. I’ll go let the others know you’re okay, and we’ll see you in the morning.”

    “Okay,” Ray mumbled, eyes already growing heavy with sleep. “See you.”

    “See you,” Jack quietly agreed.

\--

_"Don't you fucking drop me, Ray!"_

_“Do you have any fucking idea how bad that would hurt, Ray?"_

_"Sorry--what, Ray, no!"_

_“No, RAY!”_

    The Nether’s raging fires had subsided by the time his eyes fluttered open.

    _Ray,_ he thought, his mind flashing with images of a terrified boy with curly hair. _No._

_"Sorry, Michael."_

    Michael was the curly haired boy. He…

    “Ray,” he whispered, reaching up to touch his face. Rough, short hair prickled along his chin. He could feel something over his eyes, metal and glass that made everything look different when he took them off. “I’m Ray.”

    A sudden, tortured scream rent the air and Ray started so hard it hurt.

    “No!” he was screaming before he even realized it, his chest burning. He thought of the curly haired boy and the scream came again. Other faces floated to his mind, a man with tired eyes and a lazy smile, another with a magnificent beard. Another scream and his mind jumped to a man with sandy hair and a playful smile. As the screams continued the face twisted from smiling to agonized, and he didn’t know how he knew it, but Ray knew it was this man who was screaming, and he didn’t know who that man was but he knew, he just _knew_ , he would do anything to help him.

    “I’m coming!” he bellowed, surging to his feet. His head swung frantically as he tried to put a direction to the screaming, and then he darted to the left. He scrambled up an embankment of dark, shimmering red sand, shouting a constant string of, “Hold on, I’m coming, Just hold on!”

    The top of the embankment turned out of be a small cliff, the other side a steep drop into the little valley below. What had once been a collection of small homes in the valley was now burning wreckage, and it was from here that the screams emanated. Ray spotted one crumpled building in particular that seemed to be the source of the screams. Half sliding, half falling, he dropped down from the cliff into the ruined village.

    The screaming was louder now, and he ran to it full tilt. As he came up on the burning home, he could make out a shape to one side, binned beneath a heap of toppled brick. The brick itself had caught fire, and, judging by the screaming, the brick was doing nothing to protect its captive from the flames.

    “I’m here, I’m here,” Ray screamed, digging into the brick. He cried out, pulling back sharply when the fire burned his hands. He watched in horror as his pale skin slowly turned a vibrant red. He hesitated for only a moment though, before the other man’s screams had him back in the brick. “I’m here, I’m going to get you out, I promise!”

    As soon as he’d cleared away enough of the stone to do so, Ray wrapped his arms around the man’s chest and heaved him clear of the wreckage. The man was a bit bigger than him, but Ray was fueled by a level of fear he couldn’t explain as he pulled the man over to a safer looking expanse of sand.

    “Are you okay?” Ray asked, crouching down beside the man. The man answered with a pained moan, his hands snaking sluggishly around his stomach. His clothes all down his torso and his legs were singed and burned, gaps in the fabric revealing angry red patches of skin that matched Ray’s hands. “It’s alright,” Ray whispered, rubbing the man’s shoulder. He had to use the back of his hand to avoid further injuring his burned palm, so it made for a clumsy comfort, but he figured it was better than nothing. “You’re okay, you’re safe now. I’m here, I’ll take care of you.”

    The man shifted slightly, pale eyes finding Ray’s as he asked a hoarse, “Why?”

    “What?”

    “Why…are you helping me?”

    “I…” Ray hesitated, frowning. “I don’t know. I just…feel like I have to, I guess. Like I’m supposed to. Like I know you. My name’s Ray,” he added. “Or, I think it is.”

    “My name is Ryan,” the man, Ryan, whispered. “I think. I…I think I know you, too.”

    Ray didn’t know what else to say to that, so instead he asked, “What happened to you? How did you end up trapped like that?”

    “I don’t know. I just…was. I have no idea how I got there.”

    Ray’s frown deepened. It seemed like Ryan had woken up just like he did, alone and…empty, was the only way Ray could think to describe it. How else would you describe waking up with nothing. No past, no certain name… _nothing_.

    Beside him, Ryan moaned again, his eyes sliding shut. Ray’s eyes skimmed over the man’s injuries, over his pale, gaunt face.

    “I’m going to go look around really quick,” he said, touching Ryan’s shoulder to make sure the older man was listening to him. “I might be able to find some supplies here that we can use. Don’t you go anywhere, okay? I’m going to be right back.”

    Ryan laughed, a rough, weak sound that Ray was sure sounded wonderful at full strength.

    “I’ll do my best,” he mumbled into the ground.

    Ray didn’t go far, only poking around the nearest houses for any signs of a bit of leftover food, or maybe a few medical supplies. As he searched his mind raced, raced with thoughts of everything he’d learned so far, and everything he still didn’t know. He didn’t know why he’d wanted to help Ryan, except he did. It was because he knew him. But he didn’t know him…did he? And what about the other faces dancing across his mind, four maddeningly familiar smiles, four complete strangers.

    The one thing he did know was this. No matter what his connection was to Ryan, Ray had suddenly felt better in the man’s presence. As if, for only a moment, all the confusion and chaos could melt way and together to two men could just be…normal? Comfortable? And maybe, just maybe, the same would hold true for the others whose faces Ray did but didn’t know.

    And he knew, somehow he just _knew_ , that, above all else, he had to find them.

    He _had to_.


End file.
